Van ECK Associates Corp Sells 1,852,426 Shares of Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI)

Van ECK Associates Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 44,306,559 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,852,426 shares during the period. Gold Fields comprises about 1.2% of Van ECK Associates Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Van ECK Associates Corp owned approximately 4.96% of Gold Fields worth $640,673,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Gold Fields during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Gold Fields during the 3rd quarter worth about $100,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Gold Fields during the 3rd quarter worth about $116,000. Balentine LLC bought a new position in Gold Fields during the 3rd quarter worth about $120,000. Finally, MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gold Fields in the 3rd quarter valued at about $125,000. 26.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Gold Fields Price Performance

GFI stock traded up $0.36 during trading on Monday, reaching $17.89. The company had a trading volume of 2,064,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,533,985. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Gold Fields Limited has a twelve month low of $10.31 and a twelve month high of $18.97.

Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.10. Equities research analysts forecast that Gold Fields Limited will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Gold Fields Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.1717 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Gold Fields’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17. This represents a yield of 2.5%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Gold Fields from $15.50 to $15.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Gold Fields from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $14.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group cut shares of Gold Fields from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Gold Fields from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Gold Fields Company Profile

Gold Fields Limited operates as a gold producer with reserves and resources in Chile, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, Australia, and Peru. It also explores for copper and silver deposits. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Sandton, South Africa.